NYPL RESEARCH LIBRARIES
mill '
3 3433 07997795 9
I....
WMTirvn
TnOVOflTS ,.
I
I'M I ^-^
I
Q-
W i
r^/-
.,M\-: t.
:.,^:W-kH
"BEAUTIFUL THOUGHTS"
GEORGE MAC DONALD
ARRANGED BY
ELIZABETH W. DOUGALL
f
If I can put one touch of rosy sunset, into the life of any man or
woman, 1 shall feel tliat 1 have worked with God.
Mac Donald.
W
W
NEW YORK
J
AMES POTT &
CO
114 Fifth Avenue
1894
Ov^
^ 3 > '
, J 3 JJ
' J ' »
> > >
J J > > 3
3 3 > '
,3 33' >
THS NEW YORK
PUBLIC LTBRARY
689099A
ASTOR, LENOX At4d
TIl-DeN FOUNDATtOKS
COPTRIGHT, BY
JAMES POTT & CO.
1894.
00
CO
CO
2) cbtcrttcb
TO THE MANY, WHOSE LIVES
HAVE BEEN MADE PUKER AND NOBLER,
BY THE HELPFUL THOUGHTS
SENT 0\^R THE SEA,
BY
GEORGE MAC DONALD.
JAUNARY.
January 1st.
Does God care to paint the sky of
an evening, that a few of His chil-
dren might see it, and get just a
liope, just an aspiration, out of its
passing green and gold, and purple
and red?
And should I think my day's labor
lost, if it work no visible salvation in
the earth?
January 2d.
He who is faithful over a few
things is a lord over cities. It does
not matter whether you preach in
Westminster Abbey, or teach a rag-
ged class, so you be faithful.
The faithfulness is all.
8 BEAUTIFUL THOUGHTS
January 3d.
It is better to be trusted than to
be loved.
January Jftli.
'Tis easy to destro3%
God, only, makes.
January dth.
The deepest, purest love of a
woman has its well-spring in Him.
Our longing desires can no more ex-
haust the fullness of the treasures
of the Godhead, than our imagination
can touch their measure.
January 6th.
Love wliich will yield to prayer is
imperfect and poor. Nor is it then
the love tliat yields, but its alloy.
FROM GEOnCrE MAC DONALD. 9
January 7th,
All truth is lovely.
January 8th.
Let us think and care ever so little
about God, we do not therefore exist
without Him.
January 9th.
God has an especial tenderness of
love towards thee, for that thou art
in the dark and hast no light.
January 10 th.
I think, my dear, death has two sides
to it,—
One sunny and one dark : as this
round earth
Is every day half sunny, and half
dark.
10 BEAUTIFUL THOUGHTS
We, on the dark side, call the mys-
tery death.
They, on the other side, looking
down in light,
Wait the glad birth, with other tears
than ours.
January 11th.
Fold the arms of thy faith, and
wait in quietness, until light goes up,
in thy darkness. Fold the arms of
thy faith, I say, but not of tliy ac-
tion: bethink thee of something tliat
thou oughtest to do, and go and do
it, if it be but the sweeping of a
room.
Heed not thy feelings, but do thy
work.
January 12th.
God can fill the emptiest heart.
FROM GEORGE MA C DONA LD. 1 1
January 13th.
Christianity does not mean Avhat
you think or what I think, concerning
Christ, but, what is of Christ in us.
Januarij IJfth.
Become thou pure in heart, and
thou shalt see God, whose vision
alone is life.
January loth.
None but God can read in a
woman what she really is.
January 16th.
What we call evil is tlie only and
best shape, which for the person, and
his condition at the time, could be
assumed by the best good.
12 BEAUTIFUL THOUGHTS
January 17 th^
If you would only ask what God
would have you to do, you would
soon find your confidence growing.
January 18th.
Strive to be what God would have
you be, nor hold anything else, worth
thy care.
January 19th.
God be with thee. He is with
thee, only my prayer is that thou
may'st know it.
January 20th.
It is the human we love in each
other, — and the liuman is Christ.
rnOM GEORGE MAC DONALD. 13
January 21st.
Come to me, shine in me, Master,
And I care not for river or tree:
Care not for sorrow or crying,
If only Thou shine in me.
January 22d.
The strength of a woman is as
needful to her Avomanhood as the
strength of the man to his manhood,
and a woman is just as strong as she
will be.
January 23d.
No arguing will convince you of a
God; but let Him once come in, and
all argument Avill be tenfold useless
to convince you that there is no
God.
14 BEAUTIFUL THOUGHTS
January/ 2^th.
How is tlie work of the world to
be done, if we take no thought?
We are nowhere told not to take
tliought. We mmt take thought.
What then are we to take thought
about? Why, about our work.
What are we not to take thought
about? Why, about our life- The
one is our business : the other is
God's.
January 25th,
God is in no haste : and if I do
what I may, in earnest, I need not
mourn if I work no great work on
the earth.
FROM GEORGE MACBONALB. 15
January 26th.
Lord, I have laid my heart upon Thy
altar,
But cannot get the wood to burn :
It hardly flares, ere it begins to falter.
And to the dark returns.
'Tis all I have, — smoke, failure, foiled
endeavor,
Coldness and doubt and palsied
lack :
Such as I have I send Thee, perfect
Giver,
Send Thou, Thy lightning back.
January 27th.
To trust God changes tlie atmos-
phere surrounding mystery, and seem-
ing contradiction, from one of pain
and fear, to one of hope.
10 BEAUTIFUL THOUGHTS
January 28th,
If a man desire God, he cannot help
knowing enough of Him, to be ca-
pable of learning more.
January 29tli.
To knoAV God is life.
January oOtli.
God does all that can be done, for
even the Avorst of men, to help them
to believe in Christ.
January 31st,
Hurt as it may, love on, love forever:
Love for love's sake, like the Father
above.
But for whose brave-hearted Son, we
had never
Known the sweet hurt of the sor-
rowful love.
FEBRUARY.
February 1st.
Come to us : above the storm
Ever shines the blue !
Come to us : be3'ond its form
Ever lies the true.
February 2d.
Afflictions are but the shadows of
God's wings.
February 3d.
Do not talk about the lantern that
holds the lamp : but make haste to
uncover the light, and let it shine.
February Iftli.
I find that the doing of the will of
God leaves me no time to be disput-
ing about His plans.
20 BEAUTIFUL THOU GUTS
February 5tli.
We can never be at peace, till we
have performed the highest duty of
all, — till we have risen and gone to
our Father.
February 6tli.
God sees thee, through all the
gloom, through which thou canst not
see Him.
February 7tli.
It has been well said that no man
ever sank under the burden of the
day.
It is when to-morrow^s burden is
added to to-day's, that the weight is
more than a man can bear.
FROM GEORGE MAC DONALD. 21
February Sth.
Not Avliat I think, but what Thou
art makes sure.
February 9th.
A man's labors must pass like the
sunrises and sunsets of the world.
The next thing, not the last must be
his care.
February lOtli.
All the doors that lead inward to
the secret place of the most High, are
doors outward — out of self — out of
smallness — out of wrong.
February 11th.
The lightning and thunder
They go and they come :
But the stars and the stillness
Are always at home.
22 BEAUTIFUL THOUGHTS
February 12th.
What is my next duty ? No one
can answer that question but yourself.
Is there nothing you know you neg-
lect? "Ah, then," responded she, "I
suppose it is something very common-
place, which Avill make life more
dreary than ever. That cannot help
me." " It will : if it be as drear}- as
reading the newspaper to an old deaf
Aunt. It Avill soon lead 3^ou to some-
thing more. Your duty will begin
to comfort you at once, but it Avill
at lengtli open the unknown fount-
ains of life in your heart."
February loth.
The performance of small duties,
yes, even of tlie smallest, will do more
to give temporary repose, will act
more as healthful anodynes than the
FROM GEORGE MAC DONALD. 23
greatest joys that can come to us
from any other quarter.
February l^th.
Work on. One day beyond all
thought of praise,
A sunny joy will crown thee with
its rays :
No other than thy need, thy recom-
pense.
February loth.
Because our God is so free from
stain : so loving : so unselfish : so
good : so altogether what He wants us
to be : so holy, therefore all His works
declare Him in beauty: His fingers
can touch nothing but to mould it
into loveliness.
24 BEAUTIFUL THOUGHTS
Fehruary IGtli.
Hark, hark, a voice amid the quiet
intense !
It is thy duty waiting thee without.
Fehruary 17 th.
To do as God does is to receive
God: to do a service to one of His
children is to receive the Father.
Fehruary 18th.
The man that feareth^ Lord, to doubt,
In that fear, doubteth Thee.
Fehruary 19th.
Life and religion are one, or neither
is anything.
FIi02I GEORGE MAC DONALD. 25
Fehritarij 20th.
Whosoever gives a cup of coltl
water to a little one, refreshes the
heart of the Father.
Fehruary 21st.
It is because God is perfect that
we are required to be perfect.
February 22 d.
Nothing is required of man that is
not first in God.
February 2Sd.
I think that nothing made is lost,
That not a moon has ever shone.
That not a cloud my eyes hath
crossed
But to my soul is gone ;
26 BEAUTIFUL THOUGHTS
That all the lost years, garnered, lie
In this, Thy casket, my dim soul:
And Thou wilt, once, the key apply,
And show the shining Avhole.
February 24th.
To understand tlie words of our
Lord is the husiness of life.
February 25tli.
What' is the kingdom of Christ ? A
rule of love, of truth, — a rule of ser-
vice. The King is the chief servant
in it.
February 26th.
As soon as ever a service is done
for the honor, and not for the service-
sake, the doer is that moment outside
of the kingdom.
FROM GEORGE MAC DONALD. 27
February 27tli.
Lord, Thou hast much to make me
yet,—
A feeble infant still :
Thy thoughts, Lord, in my bosom set.
Fulfill me of Thy will.
Fehruary 28th.
Not every storm that climbeth
heavenward, overwhelms the earth.
MARCH.
March 1st.
Of noise alone is borne tlie inward
sense
Of silence : and from action springs
alone
The inward knowledge of true love
and faith.
March 2d.
The rejoicing, in heaven, is greatest
over the sheep that has wandered the
farthest — perhaps was born on the
wild hillside, and not in the fold at
all.
March 3d.
Jesus gives Himself to us. — Shall
we not give ourselves to Him? Shall
3-2 BEAUTIFUL THOUGHTS
we not give ourselves to eacli other,
Avliom He loves.
MarcJi 4th.
We clo not draw back, for that we
we are unworthy, nor even for that
we are hard-hearted, and care not for
the good. The perfection of His re-
lation to us swallows up all our im-
perfections.
March 5tli.
Life is not a series of chances, with
a few providences sprinkled between,
to keep up a justly failing belief, but
one providence of God.
3Iarch 6th.
I think Thou Lord, wilt, heal me too,
Whate'er the needful cure :
The great best, only Thou wilt do.
And hoping, I endure.
FROM GEORGE MAC DONALD. 33
March 7tli.
Our Lord's arguments are for the
presentation of the truth, and the
truth carries its own conviction to
him who is able to receive it.
March 8th.
Obedience is as divine as Will.
Service as divine as Rule. How ? Be-
cause they are one in their nature :
they are both a doing of the truth.
March 9th.
We are perfect in faith, when we
can come to God, in the utter dearth
of our feelings, and our desires, with-
out a glow or an aspiration : with the
weight of failures, neglects, and wan-
dering forgetfulness, and say to Him,
" Thou art my refuge because Thou art
my home."
34 BEAUTIFUL THOUGHTS
March 10th.
Weep if thou wilt, but weep not all
too long.
Or weep and work, for work will
lead to song.
March 11th.
Nothing is inexorable but love.
March 12th.
To see a truth : to know what it
is : to understand it, and to love it,
are all one.
March loth.
Let us have grace to serve our God
with divine fear : not Avith the fear
that cringes and craves, but with the
bowing down of all thoughts, all de-
lights, all loves, before Him who is
FROM GEORGE MAC DONALD. 35
the life of them all, and who will
have them all pure.
March IJfth.
It is not love that grants a boon
unwillingly; still less is it love that
answers a prayer to the wrong and
hurt of him who prays.
March 15th.
God who has made us can never be
far from any man, who draws the
breatli of life — nay, must be in him :
not necessarily in his heart, as we
say, but still in him.
March 16th.
May not then, one day, some terri-
ble convulsion from the center of his
being ; some fearful earthquake from
36 BEAUTIFUL TIIOUGTITS
the hidden gulfs of his nature, shake
such a man, so that through all the
deafness of his death, the voice of the
Spirit may be faintly heard, the still
small voice that comes after the tem-
pest and the earthquake?
March 17tli.
God requires of us that we should
do Him no injustice.
March 18th.
Dome up, O Heaven ! yet higher o'er
my head ;
Back, back horizon ! widen out my
world :
Rush in, O infinite sea of the Un-
known :
For though He slay me, I will trust
in God.
FBOM GEORGE MAC DONALD. 37
March 19th.
To men who are not simple, sim-
ple Avorcls are the most inexplicable of
riddles.
March 20th,
It is the nature of God, so terribly
pure, that it destroys all that is not
as pure as fire, which demands like
purity, in our worship.
It is not that the fire will burn us,
if we do not worship thus, but that
the fire will burn us, until we wor-
ship thus.
March 21st.
The true revelation arouses the de-
sire to know more, by the truth of
its incompleteness.
38 BEAUTIFUL THOUGHTS
March 22d.
Whatever belonging to the region
of thought and feeling is uttered in
words, is of necessity uttered imper-
fectly.
March 23d.
Be bounteous in thy faith, for not
misspent,
Is confidence unto the Father lent.
March 24th.
Words for their full meaning de-
pend upon their source, the person
who speaks them.
So the words of God cannot mean
just the same as the words of man.
March 25th,
Troubled Soul, thou art not bound
to feel, but thou art bound to arise.
FROM GEORGE MAG DONALD. 39
God loves thee whether thou feelest
or not.
March 26th.
Try not to feel good, when thou
art not good, but cry to Him who is
good.
March 27th.
Every uplifting of the heart is a
looking up to the Father.
March 28th.
Spiritual pride springs from sup-
posed success in the high aim: with
attainment comes humility.
March 29th.
To be something to God — is not
that praise enough ?
40 BEAUTIFUL THOUGHTS
March 30th.
To be a thing God cares for, and
would have complete for Himself, be-
cause it is worth caring for, — is not*
that life enough?
March 3M.
The true self is that which can
look Jesus in the face, and say " Mi/
Lord:'
APRIL.
April 1st.
Beauty doth not pass away!
Her form departs not, though her
body dies,
Secure beneath the earth, the snow-
drop lies,
Waiting the Spring's young resurrec-
tion day.
April 2d.
God gives Himself to us though
we know it not.
April 3d.
Forgiveness can never be indiffer-
ence.
44 BEAUTIFUL THOUGHTS
April Jftli.
If we are bound to search after
what our Lord means, — and He
speaks, that we may understand — we
are at least equally bound to refuse
any interpretation which seems to us
unlike Him — unworthy of Him.
April 5tli.
God loves where He cannot yet
forgive — where forgiveness, in the full
sense, is, as yet, simply impossible :
because that which lies between us
has not begun to yield to the besom
of His holy destruction.
Ap)ril 6th.
Whatever a good word means as
used by a good man, it means just
infinitely more as used by God.
FROM GEORGE MAC DONALD. 45
April 7th.
If ye forgive not men their tres-
passes, neitlier will your heavenly
Father, forgive you your trespasses.
These words are kindness indeed.
Aiyril 8th.
God holds the unforgiving man,
with His hand, but turns His face
away from liim.
April 9th.
It may be infinitely less evil to
murder a man than to refuse to for-
give him. In as far as we can we
quench the relations of life between
us. We shut out God, the Life, the
One.
Ajyril 10th.
What man can judge his neighbor
46 BEAUTIFUL THOUGHTS
aright, save liim whose love makes
him refuse to judge him?
Therefore we are told to love, and
not to judge.
April 11th.
To be content is not to be satis-
fied. No one ought to be satisfied
with the imperfect.
April 12th.
The way to worship God while
daylight lasts is to work : the service
of God, the only " divine service " is
the helping of our fellows.
April 13th.
We are and we remain such creep-
ing Christians, because we look at
ourselves, and not at Christ.
FBOM GEORGE MAC DONALD. 47
April 14th.
God does not by the instant gift
of His Spirit, make us always feel
right; desire good; love purity; as-
pire after Him and His will.
April 15th.
Should the twilight darken into
night,
And sorrow grow to anguish: be
thou strong :
Thou art in God, and nothing can
go wrong,
Which a fresh life-pulse cannot set
aright.
April 16th,
Each of us has within him, a
secret of the Divinity; each is grow-
ing toward the revelation of that
secret to himself, and so to the full
48 BEAUTIFUL THOUGHTS
reception, according to his measure,
of the Divine.
Aj^ril 17tli.
We do not lialf appreciate the
benefits to the race, that spring from
honest dulhiess.
April 18tli.
A man must not choose his neigh-
bor; he must take the neighbor that
God sends him. Your neighbor is
just the man, who is next to you, at
the moment.
April 19th.
We shall find one day, that beauty
and riches were the best things, for
tliose to whom they were given; as
deformity and poverty, were the best
for others.
FROM GEORGE MAC DONALD, 49
April 20th.
There are those who in their first
seeking of it, are nearer to the king-
dom, than many, who have for years,
believed themselves of it.
April 21st,
The Lord says " Judge not."
Didst thou judge thy neighbor yes-
terday ? Wilt thou judge him again
to-morrow ?
April 22d.
It is strange to see, how even
noble women, with the divine gift of
imagination, may be argued into un-
belief in their best instincts, by some
small man, as commonplace as clever,
who beside them, is as limestone to
marble.
4
50 BEAUTIFUL THOUGHTS
April 23d.
Whatever God does must be right,
but are we sure that we know what
He does ?
That which men say He does may
be very wrong indeed.
April 24ih.
So long as we hang back from
doing what conscience urges, there is
no peace for us.
April 25tli.
The Lord says, " Love your ene-
mies." Sayest thou, "It is impos-
sible ! " Thou sayest true, I doubt
not : but hast thou tried whether He
who made, will not increase the
strength put forth to obey Him.
FROM GEORGE 3fAC DONALD. 51
April 26th.
Go to Him, Avlio says in the might
of His eternal tenderness, and His
human pity. " Come unto me, all ye
that labor and are heavy-laden, and I
will give you rest."
A2?ril 27th.
"A strange longing after some-
thing he knew not, nor could name,
awoke within him. This feeling was
never stilled ; the desire never left
him ; sometimes growing even to a
passion that was relieved only by a
flood of tears."
April 28th.
Little did Robert tliink, that his
soul was searching after One, whose
form was constantly presented to him,
52 BEAUTIFUL THOUGHTS
but as constantly, obscured and made
unlovely by the Avords, without
knowledge, spoken in the religious
assemblies of the land.
April 29tlu
The will of God can never be
other than good ; but I doubt if any
man can ever be sure that a thing is
the will of God, save by seeing into
its nature and character, and behold-
ing its goodness.
April 30th.
It is one thing and a good thing,
to do for God's sake, that which is
not His will; it is another thing, and
altogether a better thing, to do for
God's sake, that which is His will.
MAY.
May 1st.
Turn thee and to thy work; let
God alone;
And wait for Him; faint o'er the
waves will come
Far floating whispers from the other
shore
To thine averted ears. Do thou tliy
work,
And thou shalt follow ; follow and
find thine own.
May 2d.
Count not that labor an evil, which
helps to bring out the best elements
of human nature.
56 BEAUTIFUL THOUGHTS
May 3d,
Finding how the unbelief of the
best of the poor is occasioned by
hopelessness in privation, and the
sufferings of those dear to them, he
Avas confident that only the personal
communion of friendship, could make
it possible for them to believe in
God.
May 4th.
You must not imagine that the re-
sult depends on you, or that a single
human soul can be lost, because you
may fail.
May 5th,
God can use us as tools, but to be
a tool of, is not to be a fellow-
worker with.
FH OM GEOJiGE MA C DONALD. 57
Mai/ 6th.
Repentance does not mean sorrow;
it means turning away from the sin.
Mai/ 7th.
The mist was now far enouG^h off
to be seen and thought about. It
was clouds now — no longer mist and
rain. And I thought how, at length,
the evils of the w^orld would float
away, and we should see what it was
that made it so hard for us to be-
lieve, and be at peace.
May 8th.
It is true, no one can by an
effort of the Avill care for this or
that; but where a man cares for
notliing that is worth caring for, the
fault must lie, not in the nature God
58 BEAUTIFUL THOUGHTS
made, but in the character the man
himself has made, and is making.
Ma^ 9th.
When men face a duty, not merely
will that duty become, at once, less
unpleasant to them, but life itself
Avill immediately begin to gather in-
terest.
Mai/ 10th.
Thousands that are capable of
great sacrifices are yet not capable of
the little ones which are all that are
required of them.
May 11th.
A multitude of successive, small
sacrifices, may work more good in the
world, than many a large one.
FROM GEORGE MAC DONALD. 59
Ma?/ 12th.
The cry of the human heart, in
all ages, and in every moment, is,
" AVhere is God, and how shall I
find Him?"
May 13th.
Those who w^ould do good to the
poor, must attempt it, in the way
in which best they could do good to
people of their own standing.
May llfth.
Women are being constantly mis-
led by the fancy and hope of being
the saviours of men. It is natural to
goodness and innocence, but not the
less is the error a disastrous one.
Christians must be in the ^^'<K•ld as
60 BEAUTIFUL THOUGHTS
He was in the world : and in propor-
tion as the truth radiated from them,
the world would be able to believe in
Him.
Ma7/ 16th,
Who shall say when God can do
no more — God who takes no care of
Himself, and is laboriously working
to get His children home.
May 17th.
Our fate is in our own hands. It
is ours to determine the direction in
which we shall go.
May 18th.
The foolish child thinks tliere can
be nothing, where he sees nothing ;
the human heart feels, as if, where it
cannot devise help, there is none pos-
FPiOM GEORGE MAC DONALD. 61
sible to God. " But as the heavens
are higher than the earth, so are His
ways higher than our ways, and His
thoughts than our thoughts."
Mai/ 19tli,
If God cannot save a man by all
His good gifts ; not even by the gift
of a woman, offered to his higher
nature, — but by that refused, — the
woman's giving of herself, to his
lower nature, can only make him the
more unredeemable.
May Wth,
Nothing worth calling good can or
ever will be started, full-grown.
May 21st.
■ There is no true power but that
which has individual roots.
62 BEAUTIFUL TIIOUGUTS
Maij 2M.
We are alwaj's disbelieving in God,
because things do not go as we in-
tend and desire them to go.
May 23d.
Contempt is murder committed by
the intellect, as hatred is murder
committed by the heart.
May 34th.
Would it be any kindness not to
punish sin? Not to use all means to
put away the evil thing from us.
May 25th.
God is nearer to you than any
thought or feeling of 3'ours.
FROM GEORGE MAC DONALD. 03
Mai/ 26th.
If I felt my heart as hard as a
stone ; if I did not love God or man,
or woman, or little child, I would yet
say to God, in my lieart, " O God,
see how I trust Thee, because Thou
art perfect, and not changeable like
me. I do not love Thee. I am not
even sorry for it. Thou seest how
much I need Thee to come close to
me, to put Thy arm around me, to
say to me ^ 3Iy Child,' for the worse
my state, the greater my need."
Maij 27th.
Everything is possible; but without
labor and failure nothing is achiev-
able.
^--^ May 28th.
It is a happy tiling for us that this
64 BEAUTIFUL THOUGHTS
is really all we have to concern our-
selves about — what to do next.
May 29tlu
We are, perhaps, too much in the
habit of thinking of death as the
culmination of disease, Avhich, re-
garded only in itself, is an evil, and
a terrible evil. But I think rather of
death as the first pulse of the new
strength, shaking itself free from the
old, mouldy remnants of earth-gar-
ments, that it may begin, in freedom,
the new life that grows out of the
old.
May SOtli.
Some natures will endure a great
amount of misery before tliey feel
compelled to look there, for help,
whence all help and liealing comes.
FROM GEORGE MAC DONALD, 65
May 3Ut.
Never any one tried to be better,
without, for a time, seeming to liim-
self, perhaps to others, to be worse.
JUNE.
June 1st.
Do with us what Thou wilt, all
glorious heart;
Thou God of them that are not yet,
but grow ;
We trust Thee for the thing we shall
be yet;
We, too, are ill content with what
we are.
June 2d.
The kino^dom of heaven is not
come, even Avlien God's will is our
law; it is come when God's will is
our will.
70 BEAUTIFUL THOUGHTS
June 3d.
The more we love God, the more
we love each other.
June Iftli.
God is your Father whether you
wish it or not.
June 5th.
God knows how things look to us
both far off and near. What tliey
look to Him, is what they are ; we
cannot see them so, but we see them
as He meant us to see them, there-
fore truly, according to the measure
of the created.
June 6th.
No one can ever save his soul.
God only can do that.
FROM GEORGE MAC DONALD. 71
June 7th.
To have wliat we want is riches,
but to be able to do without is
power.
June 8 til.
That man has begun to be strong
who has begun to know that sepa-
rated from life essential, that is God,
he is weakness itself; but of strength
inexhaustible, if he be one with his
origin.
June 9th.
Happy she, who as her sun is go-
ing down behind the western is her-
self ascending the eastern hill, re-
turning througli old age to the
second and better childhood which
shall not be taken away.
72 BEAUTIFUL THOUGHTS
June 10 th.
On the far horizon heaven and
earth seemed to meet as old friends,
who though never parted, were yet
in the continual act of renewing their
friendship.
Jmie 11th.
The earth like the angels was re-
joicing,— if not over a sinner that
had repented, yet over a man that
had passed from a lower into a
higher condition of life — out of its
earth into its air.
Ju7ie 12th.
To make things real to us is the
end and battle-cause of life.
June 13th.
We often think we believe what
FROM GEORGE MAC DONALD. 78
we are only presenting to our imag-
inations. The least thing can over-
throw that kind of faith.
Ju7ie l^th.
You cannot leave thoughts as you
do books. Those you love only come
nearer to you when you go away
from them.
June 15tli.
Faith in its simplest, truest, might-
iest form, is — to do His will in the
one thing revealing itself, at the mo-
ment, as duty.
June 16th.
God lets men have their play-
things, like the children they are,
that they may learn to distinguish
them from true possessions.
74 BEAUTIFUL THOUGHTS
June 17th.
Enduring evil, without returning
evil, was the Saviour's Avay. I fancy
there would be more Christians, and
of a better stamp, in the world, if
that had been the mode of resistance
always adopted.
June 18th.
The man who is able to look down
and see that part of him capable of
disappointment lying beneath him, is
far more blessed than he who re-
joices in the fulfillment of his desires.
June 19th.
Only where God is, is no empti-
ness.
FROM GEORGE MAC DONALD. 75
June Wth.
Religion is simply the way home to
the Father.
Ju7ie 21st.
Obedience is the road to all things.
It is the only way to gro\y able to
trust Him.
June 22d.
The gospel is not given to redeem
our understandings, but our hearts :
that done, and only then, our under-
standings will be free.
Ju7ie 23d.
Poor unbelieving birds of God, we
hover about a whole wood of the
trees of life, venturing a peck, liere
and there, as if their fruit might be
76 BEAUTIFUL THOUGHTS
poison, and the design of our Creator
was our ruin.
June ^^tli.
God finds it very hard to teach
us, but He is never tired of trying.
Ju7ie 25tli.
Love and faith and obedience are
sides of the same prism.
Jmie 26tli.
Nothing but Christ Himself for
3^our very own teacher and friend
and brother, not all the doctrines
about Him, even if every one of
them were true, can save you.
June '27th.
It is out of the storm alone that
true peace comes.
Fit OM GEOli GE MA C UONALD. 7 7
June Q8tli,
One ought not to be miserable
about another, as if God had forgot-
ten him — only i)ray and be ready.
June L'9th.
Do you think Jesus came to de-
liver us from the punishment of our
sins? The terrible thing is to be bad,
and all punishment is to help to de-
liver us from it, nor will it cease
until we have given up being bad.
June 30th.
To the loving soul alone does the
Father reveal Himself; for love alone
can understand Him.
JULY.
July 1st.
Come to me, come to me, O my God ;
Come to me everywhere.
Let the trees mean Thee, and the
grassy sod.
And the water and the am
For Thou art so far, that I often doubt,
As on every side I stare.
Searching within, and looking without.
If Thou art anywhere.
July 2d.
God's mercy is infinite ; and the
doctrine of adoption is one of the
falsest of all doctrines invented by the
so-called Church, and used by yet less
loving teachers, to oppress withal, the
82 BEAUTIFUL THOUGHTS
souls of God's true children, and scare
them from their Father's arms.
Juli/ 3d.
It will be something better and
better, lovelier and lovelier, that Christ
will teach you. Only you must leave
human teachers altogether, and give
yourself to Him to be taught.
If we do not trust God, and will not
work with Him ; but are always thwart-
ing Him, in His endeavors to make us
alive, then we must be miserable : there
is no help for it.
July 5th.
The thing that God loves is the only
lovely thing, and he who does it, does
FROM GEORGE MAC DONALD. 83
well ; and is on the way to discover
that he does it very badly.
Jidi/ 6th.
The doing of things from duty, is
but a stage on the road to the kingdom
of truth and love.
Juli/ 7th.
To hold fast upon God, with one
hand, and open wide the other to your
neighbor — that is religion : and the
true way to all better things that are
yet to come.
July 8th.
It is those who are unaware of their
proclivities, and never pray against
them, that must be led into temptation,
lest they should forever continue
capable of evil.
84 BEAUTIFUL THOUGHTS
July 9th.
I cannot help thinking — if I could
get my head and heart into the king-
dom of Heaven, I should find that
everything else would come right. I
believe it is God Himself I want —
nothing will do but Himself in me.
Juli/ 10th.
When you are good, then you will
know why Pie did not make you good
at first, and will be perfectly satisfied
with the reason ; because you will find
it good and just and right — so good,
that it was altogether beyond the un-
derstanding of one who is not good.
Jidy 11th.
Peace is for those wlio do the truth,
not for those who opine it.
FROM GEORGE MAC DONALD. 85
Juhj 12tli.
To know God is to be in the secret
place of all knowledge.
July ISth.
To wait for God, believing it His
one design to redeem His creatures,
ready to put to the liand, the moment
his hour strikes, is faith lit for a fellow-
worker with Him.
July IJi-tli.
When I look like this into the blue
sky, it seems so deep, so peaceful, so
full of a mysterious tenderness, that I
could lie for centuries, and Avait for
the dawning of the face of God out
of the awful loving-kindness.
86 BEAUTIFUL THOUGHTS
July loth.
It is for the revelation of God to
all human souls, that they may be
saved by knowing Him, and so be-
coming like Him, that a child is
chosen and set before them, in the
Gospels.
July 16th.
Reality, however lapped in vanity,
or even in falsehood, cannot lose its
power.
July 17th.
Forgiveness is love towards the un-
lovely.
July 18 th.
To help the growth of a thought
that struggles toward the liglit ; to
brush with gentle hand, the earth-
FROM GEOBGE MAC DONALD. 87
stain from the Avliite of one snow-
drop, such be my ambition.
Juli/ 19th.
People talk about special provi-
dences. I believe in the providences,
but not in the specialty. I do not
think that God lets the thread of my
affairs go for six days, and on the
seventh evening, takes it up for a
moment.
Jul2/ mtli.
Until we love the Lord, so as to do
what He tells us, we have no right
to have an oj^inion about what the
disciples meant ; for all they wrote is
about things beyond us.
88 BEAUTIFUL THOUGHTS
July 21st.
My God, I thank Thee, Thou dost care
for me.
I am content, rejoicing to go on,
Even when my home seems very far
away ;
For over grief and aching emptiness,
And fading hopes, a higher joy arises.
July 22d.
To succeed in the wrong is the most
dreadful punishment to a man, who in
the main is honest.
July 23d.
If I had my way, I would never
argue at all. I would spend my
energy in setting forth what I believe,
and so leave it to work its own way.
FROM GEORGE MAC DONALD. 89
Juhj ^th.
Surely if God has made us to desire
the truth, He lias got some truth to
cast into the gulf of that desire.
Juhj 25tli,
Love is one and love is changeless.
July QGtli.
I do not think that the road to con-
tentment lies in despising what we
have not got. Let us acknowledge
all good, and be content without it.
July 27tli.
The world will never be right till
the mind of God is the measure of
things, and the will of God the law
of things.
90 BEAUTIFUL THOUGHTS
July ?Mtli.
Remember the Truth depends not
on your seeing it.
July 9.9tlu
Show me the person ready to step
from any, let it be the narrowest sect
of Christian Pharisees, into a freer and
holier air; and I Avill look to find, in
that person, the one of that sect, who,
in the midst of its darkness and selfish
worldliness, has been living a life more
obedient than the rest.
July 30th.
In giving, we receive more than we
give; and the more is in proportion
to the worth of tlie thing given.
FROM GEORGE MACDONALD. 91
Juli/ 31st.
Well do I know not one human
being ought — even were it possible —
to be enough for himself : each of us
needs God, and every human soul He
has made, before He has enough ; but
we ought each to be able, in the hope
of what is one day to come, to endure
for a time, not having enough.
AUGUST.
Aur/ust 1st.
We believe — nay, Lord, we only hope.
That one day we shall thank Thee per-
fectly,
For pain and hope and all that led
or drove
Us back into the bosom of Thy love.
August 2d.
Our strength ought to go into con-
duct, not into talk — least of all, into
talk about what they call the doctrine
of the gospel.
August 3d.
If the world is God's, every true
man ought to feel at home in it.
96 BEAUTIFUL THOUGHTS
August J^th.
Sometliing is wrong, if the calm of
the summer night does not sink into
the heart, for the peace of Gocl is there
embodied.
August 5th.
As the light fills the earth, so God
fills what we call life.
August Gtli.
To do what we ought, is an alto-
gether higher, diviner, more potent,
more creative thing, than to write the
grandest poem, paint the most beau-
tiful picture, carve the mightiest
statue, or dream out the most enchant-
ing commotion of melody and har-
mony.
FROM GEORGE 3IAC DONALD. 97
August 7th.
A Christian is just one that does
what the Lord Jesus tells him. Neither
more nor less than* that makes a
Christian.
August 8th.
The Lord has not forsaken His
people because the young ones do not
think just as the old ones choose.
The Lord has something fresh to tell
them, and is getting them ready to
receive His message.
August 9th.
On the borders of her playfulness,
there seemed ever to hang a fringe of
thoughtfulness, as if she felt that the
present moment owed all its sparkle
and brilliance to the eternal sunlight.
98 BEAUTIFUL THOUGHTS
God Avas good to lier, and to us, in
her.
August 10th.
Everything God gives you to do,
you must do as well as you can, and
that is the best possible preparation
for what He may Avant you to do
next.
August lltli.
It Avas one of the lessons of our
Lord's life that knoAvledge and poAver
are not on a level Avith goodness.
August 12th.
"We cannot see the truth in common
things, — the Avill of God in little every-
day affairs, and that is hoAV they be-
come so irksome to us.
FR OM GEORGE 31 A C DONALD. 99
August ISth.
The lowest work Avliich God gives
a man to do must be in its nature
noble, as certainl}^ noble as tlie high-
est.
August l^tli.
Life is God's school, and they who
will listen to the Master there, will
learn at God's speed.
August 16tli.
Something is wrong in the man to
whom the sunrise is not a divine glory,
for therein are embodied the truth, the
simplicity, the might of the Maker.
August 16th.
Let no one who wants to do any-
thing for the soul of a man lose a
689099 A
100 BEAUTIFUL THOUGHTS
chance of doing something for his
body.
August 17th.
God is the only home of the human
souL
August 18th.
A real duty is always something
right in itself. The duty a man makes
his for the time, by supposing it to be
a duty, may be something quite wrong
in itself.
August 19th.
Believe in the Will that w^ith a
thouofht can turn the shadow of death
into the morning ; give gladness for
weeping, and the garment of praise for
the spirit of heaviness.
FROM GEORGE MAC DONALD. 101
August ?Mli.
It is a good tiling to desire to sliare
a good thing, but it is not well to be
unable alone to enjoy a good thing.
It is our enjoyment that should make
us desire to share. To enjoy alone is
to be able to share.
August 2l8t.
Respect and graciousness from each
to each, is the very essence of Chris-
tianity, independent of rank or pos-
session or relation.
August ^M,
The man who would spare due
suffering is not wise. Because a thing
is unpleasant it is folly to conclude it
ought not to be.
102 BEAUTIFUL THOUGHTS
There are creations to be perfected,
sinners to be redeemed, through the
ministry of pain.
August '23d.
Mercy sometimes wished she were
good ; but there are thousands of wan-
dering ghosts who would be good, if
they might without taking trouble ;
the kind of goodness they desire would
not be worth a life to hold it.
August 2Jftli.
Instead of God's truth they offer
man's theory, and accuse of rebellion
ap-ainst God such as cannot live on
the husks they call food.
August ^dth.
He speaks against God who says
He does things that are not good. It
FROM GEORGE MAC DONALD. 103
does not make a thing good to call it
good.
August 26th.
Tlie justice of God is the love of
what is right and the doing of what is
right.
Eternal misery in tlie name of justice
could satisfy none but a demon, whose
bad laws had been broken.
August 27th.
How did they find Thee in days of
old ?
How did they grow so sure ?
They fought in Thy name, they were
glad and bold.
They suffered and kept themselves
pure.
104 BEAUTIFUL THOUGHTS
August 28tli.
When will we understand tliat it is
neither thought nor talk, neither sor-
row for sin, iior love of holiness that
is required of us, but obedience. To
be and to obey are one.
Auf/icst C9t7i.
I know that all the strangest things
in life and history must one day come
together, in a beautiful face of loving
purpose, one of the faces of the living
God.
August 30th.
Our dependence is our eternity.
We cannot live on bread alone: we
need every word of God.
FROM GEORGE MA C BONA LI). 105
August 31sf.
God cannot by searching be found
out, jet is ever before us : the one we
can best know, the one we cannot
lielp knowing ; for His end in giving
us being, is that His humblest creature
shoukl at length possess Himself, and
be possessed by Him.
SEPTEMBER.
Septejiiber 1st.
Defeat thou know'st not, canst not
know ;
'Tis that thy aims so lofty go,
They need as long to root and grow,
As infant hills to reach the snow.
Septemher 2d,
God will not take you away if it
be better for you to live here longer.
But you will have to go sometime ;
and if you contrived to live after God
Avanted you to go, you would find
yourself much less ready when the
time came that j^ou must go.
110 BEAUTIFUL THOUGHTS
September 3d.
God is tlie one perfect individual,
and Avhile this world is His and that
world is His, there can be no incon-
sistency, no violent difference, between
there and here.
September Ij-tli.
All is man's, only because it is
God's.
September 5th.
The only way to get at what is
right, is to do what seems right. Even
if we mistake, there is no other way.
September 6tli.
Evil that is not seen to be evil by
one willing and trying to do right, is
not counted evil to him. It is evil,
FROM GEORGE MA C DONA LD. 1 1 1
only to the person who either knows
it to be evil or Avho does not care
whether it be or not.
Septe^nher 7th.
The philosopher is he who lives in
the thought of things ; the Christian
is he who lives in the thinn^s them-
selves.
September 8th.
I thought that if I could get them
to like poetry and beautiful things in
words, it would not only do them good,
but would help them to see Avliat is
in the Bible and therefore love it more.
September 0th. -
It is in our own thoughts, and our
own actions that we have first to stand
112 BEAUTIFUL THOUGHTS
up for the right ; our business is not
to j)i'otect ourselves from our neigh-
bor's wrong, but our neighbor from
our wrong. This is to slay evil, the
other is to make it multiply.
September 10th.
Things are ours, that we may use
them for all — sometimes that we may
sacrifice them. God had but one pre-
cious thing and He gave that.
September 11th.
There is no forgetting ourselves, but
in tlie finding of our deeper, our truer
self — the Christ in us.
September l'2th.
Relicfion is neither the food nor the
medicine of being. It is the life essen-
tial.
FROM GEORGE MAC DONALD. 113
September 13th.
Depend upon" it, we get our best
use of life, in learning, by the facts of
its ebb and flow, to understand the
Son of iMan.
Sei^temher IJ^tli.
Praised be the grandeur of the God
who can endure to make and see His
children suffer.
September 15tli.
Thanks be to Him for His north
winds and His poverty, and His bitter-
ness that falls upon the spirit that
errs !
Let those who know Him, thus
praise the Lord for His goodness.
September IGth.
" By life, T mean being. If there
114 BEAUTIFUL THOUGHTS
be no God, I dare not kill myself,"
said Malcolm, " lest worse should be
waiting me in the awful voids beyond.
If there be a God, living or dying is
all one, so it be what He pleases."
September 17th.
Some people are content not to do
mean actions. I want to become in-
capable of a mean thought or feeling.
September ISth.
As we grow ready for true nobility,
somewhere or other we will fmd what
is needful for us, in a book, or a friend,
or best of all, in our own thoughts —
the eternal thought speaking in our
thoughts.
September Wtli.
There is no strcnoih in unbelief.
FliOM GEORGE MA C DONALD. 115
Even tlie unbelief of what is false is
no source of might. It is the truth
shining from behind, that gives the
strength to disbelieve.
September 20ih,
God may be good, although to you.
His government may seem to deny it.
Septemhei' '21st.
It is the nobler thing to seek God
in the days of gladness, to look up to
Him, in trustful bliss, when the sun is
shining. But if a man be miserable,
if the storm is coming down on him,
what is he to do ? Tliere is nothing
mean in seeking God then, though it
would have been nobler to seek Him
before.
116 BEAUTIFUL THOUGHTS
September 22 d.
If you have ever seen the Lord,
if only from afar — if you have any
vaguest suspicion that Jesus was a
better man than other men, one of 3'our
first duties must be to open your ears
to His words, and see whether tliey
commend themselves to you as true:
then, if they do, to obey them with
your whole strength and might.
September 23d.
When we understand Him, then
only do we understand our life and
ourselves.
September 2Iftli.
The only and greatest thing man is
capable of is Trust in (lod.
FROM GEORGE MAC DONALD. 117
Sej^t ember 25 tit.
The true, in even the lowest kind,
is of the truth, and to be compelled to
feel that is to be driven a trifle nearer
to the truth of being, of creation, of
God.
September 26th.
Every truth has its own danger or
shadow.
September 27th.
I imagine that to him that has over-
come the world, in very virtue of his
victory, it will show itself the lovely
and pure thing it was created ; for
he will see through the cloudy envelope
of his battle to the living^ kernel below.
September 28th.
What a joy to know that, of all
118 BEAUTIFUL THOUGHTS
things and all thoughts — God is near-
est to us — so near that Ave cannot see
Him, but far beyond seeing Him, can
know of Him infinitely.
September 29th.
God alone can tell what delights it
is possible for Him to give to the pure
in heart, who shall one day behold
Him.
September SOtJi.
The true possession of anything is
to see and feel in it, what God made
it for and the uplifting of the soul
by that knowledge, is the joy of true
having.
OCTOBER.
October 1st.
Nor seek tliou to revive
The summer time, when roses were
alive,
Do thou thy work, — be willing to be
- old;
Thy sorrow is the husk that doth
enfold
A fforo^eous June, for which thou
need'st not strive.
October 2d.
The world might be divided into
those who let things go, and those
who do not : into the forces and facts,
the slaves and fancies : those who are
122 BEAUTIFUL THOUGHTS
always doing something on God's
creative lines, and those that are always
grumbling and striving against them.
October 3d.
Real union must ever be in propor-
tion to mutual truthfulness.
October 4th.
To miss is the preparation for receiv-
ing.
October 5th.
One incapable of drudgery cannot
be capable of the finest work.
October 6th.
The idea that our standing is deter-
mined by our knowledge of what is
or is not the thing., is one of the degrad-
ino- influences of modern times.
FROM GEORGE MA C DONALD. 123
Octoher 7th.
I thought witliiu myself, that if there
were a God, He certainly knew that I
would give myself to Him, if I could :
that if I knew Jesus to be really His
son, however it might seem strange to
believe in Him, and hard to obey liim,
I would try to do so ; and then a verse
about the smoking flax and the bruised
reed came into my head, and a great hope
arose in me.
Octoher 8tli.
God shows us the good and the bad ;
urges us to be good ; makes good
thoughts and good desires in us ; but
we must yield ; we must turn to Him ;
we must consent to be made good.
Octoher 0th.
The more anxious lie was to come
124 BEAUTIFUL THOUGHTS
near to God, tlie more lie felt that
the high-road to God lay through the
forest of humanity.
October 10th.
It is in the individual soul that the
Spirit works, and out of which He
sends forth fresh influences.
October lltli.
Good women, in their supposed
ignorance of men's wickedness, are not
unfrequently like the angels, in that
they understand it perfectly, without
the knowledge soiling one feather of
their wings.
October mtli.
Until we begin to learn that the
only way to serve God, in any real
FROM GEORGE MA C DONA LI). 1 tJ5
sense of the word, is to serve our
neighbor, we may have knocked at the
wicket-gate, but I doubt if Ave have
got one foot across the threshold of
the kingdom.
October 13th.
All the doors that lead inward to
the secret place of the ^lost High are
doors outwards — out of self — out of
smallness — out of wrong.
October llftli.
It is not the high summer alone
that is God's. The winter also is Ilis.
All man's winters are His, — the winter
of our poverty, — the winter of our
sorrow — even the winter of our dis-
content.
126 BEAUTIFUL THOUGHTS
October ISth.
We cannot live on air alone, we need
an atmosphere of living souls.
October 16th.
The love of God is the source of
all joy, and of all good things, and
this love is present in the child, Jesus.
October 17th.
I fancy the most indispensable thing
to a life is that it should be interesting
to those who have it to live.
October 18th.
The wind-tossed anemone is a word
of God as real and true as the un-
bejidiiig oak l)eneath wliich it grows.
FROM GEORGE MAC DONALD. 127
Oetober 19th.
Perhaps the highest moral height
which a man can reach, and at the same
time the most difficult of attainment, is
the willingness to be nothinrf.
October 20th.
We can behold and understand God,
in the least degree, as well as in the
greatest, only by the Godlike within
us, and he that loves thus the good
and great has no room, no thought,
no necessity for comparison and differ-
ence.
October 2Ut,
Sunshine is not gladness, because
you see Him not. The stars are far
away because He is not near.
128 BEAUTIFUL THOUGHTS
October 22d.
The heart within you cries out for
something, and you let it cry. It is
crying for its God — for its father and
mother and home. And the day will
come, wlien all the Avorld will look
dull and gray, till your heart is satis-
fied and quieted with the presence of
Him in whom we live, move, and have
our being.
Octoher 23d.
I believe that the grand, noble way
of thinkinof of God and His will must
be the true way, though it never can
be grand or noble enough : and that
belief in beauty and truth, is essential
to a right understanding of the world.
Octoher 24th.
Sorrow herself will reveal, one day,
FROM GEORGE MAC DONALD. 129
that she was only the beneficent
shadow of joy.
October 25th.
When we love truly, all oppression
of past sin will be swept away.
Octoher 26th.
Love is the final atonement, oi wliich
and for which the sacrifice of the
atonement was made. And till this
atonement is made in every man, sin
holds its own, and God is not all in
all.
Octoher 27th.
The goal of all life is the face of
God.
October 28th.
She had a strong instinctive feeling
130 BEAUTIFUL THOUGHTS
that she was in the world to do some-
thing, and she saw that if nobody
tried to keep things right they would
go terribly Avrong.
If slie could do nothing with the big
things, she must be the busier with the
little things.
October 29th.
Perhaps she had to learn a yet
higher lesson : tliat our one free home
is the Heart, the eternal, lovely Will
of God, than that which should fail,
it would be better that Ave should go
out in blackness. But this Will is
our Salvation. Because He liveth, we
shall live also.
October SOtli,
Is it true that all our experiences
will one day revive in entire clearness
FROM GEOBGE MAC DONALD. 131
of outline, and full brilliancy of color,
passing before the horror-struck soul
to the denial of time, and the asser-
tion of ever-present eternity? If so,
then God be with us, for we shall
need Him.
October 31st.
The Spirit of God lies all about
the spirit of man, like a mighty sea,
ready to rush in, at the smallest chink
in the walls, that shut him out from
his own.
NOVEMBER.
November 1st.
Better a death when work is clone
Than earth's most favored birth ;
Better a chiki in God's great house
Than the kine of all the earth.
&
November 2d.
That whicli is best He gives most
plentifully, as is reason wdth Him.
Hence the quiet fulness of ordinary
nature ; hence the Spirit to them that
ask it.
November 3d.
And tlien I thouofht of the wind
that bloweth where it listeth, wdiich is
136 BEAUTIFUL THOUGHTS
everywhere, and I thanked God for
the Life of life whose story and whose
words are in that best of books.
November Jftli.
If we do evil that good may come,
the good we looked for will never come
thereby. But once evil is done, we
may humbly look to Him who bringeth
good out of evil and wait.
November 5th.
Only as we do our duty will light
go up in our hearts, making us wise
to understand the precious words of
our Lord.
November 6th.
What we all need is just to become
little children like Him ; to cease to be
FBOM GEORGE MAC DONALD. 137
careful about many things, and trust
in Him, seeking only that He sliould
rule, and that we should be made good
like Him.
November 7th.
We profess to think Jesus the
grandest and most glorious of men,
and yet hardly care to be like Him ;
and so when we are offered His Spiiit
for the asking, we will hardly take the
trouble to ask for it.
Novemhev 8th.
Tlie philosopher occupies himself
with what God may intend, the Chris-
tian with what God may want him to
do.
November 9th.
It is a joy to think that He will not
138 BEAUTIFUL THOUGHTS
give you a stone, even if you should
take it for a loaf, and ask for it, as
sucli.
JVovemher 10th.
When people do not understand
what the Lord says, when it seems to
them that His advice is impracticable,
instead of searching deeper for a mean-
ing which will be evidently true and
wise, they comfort themselves by think-
ing He could not have meant it al-
together, and so leave it.
Novemher 11th.
Let us seek to find out what our
Lord means that we may do it : trying
and failing, and trying again, — verily
to be victorious at last, — what matter
ivhe7i so long as we are trying, and so
coming nearer to our end.
FROM GEORGE MAC DONALD. 139
November 12th.
To serve is the highest, noblest call-
ing in creation. For even the Son of
Man came not to be ministered unto
but to minister.
November loth.
Father ! we need Thy winter as Thy
spring,
And Thy poor children, knowing Thy
great heart,
Will cease to vex Thee with our pee-
vish cries,
Will lift our eyes and smile, though
sorrowful,
Yet not the less pray for Thy help,
when pain
Is overstrung.
November IJfth.
It has been well said that no man
140 BEAUTIFUL THOUGHTS
ever sank under the burden of the day.
It is when to-morrow's burden is added
to the burden of to-day that the weight
is more than a man can bear.
November 15th.
One of the highest benefits we can
reap from understanding the way of
God with ourselves is, that we become
able thus to trust Him, for others, with
whom we do not understand His ways.
November 16th.
The poorest success, provided the
attempt has been genuine, will enable
one to enter into any art ten times
better than before.
November 17 th.
I think the rest, in heaven, as here,
will be the presence of God, and if Ave
FROM GEORGE MAC DONALD. 141
have Him with us, the battlefield itself
will be, if not quiet, j^et as full of
peace as this night of stars.
November 18th.
Humble ministrations to your neigh-
bor will help 3^ou to that perfect love
of God whicli casteth out fear.
November 19th,
Nothing but the love of God — that
God revealed in Christ — will make you
able to love your neighbor aright.
November Wth.
One of the gi-eat battles that we have
to fight in this world — for twenty great
battles have to be fought, all at once
and in one — is the battle with appear-
ances.
142 BEAUTIFUL THOUGHTS
Noveynher 21st,
Contempt is one of tlie lowest spirit-
ual conditions in wliicli nwy being can
place himself. Our Lord says, " Take
heed that ye despise not one of these
little ones, for their angels do always
behold the face of My Father, who is
in heaven."
November 22d.
In thinking lovingly about others,
we think healthily about ourselves.
November 23 d.
There is One who bringeth light out
of darkness, joy out of sorrow, humility
out of wrong.
November 24th.
When our duty looks like an enemy.
FROM GEORGE MAC DONALD. 143
dragging us into tlie dark mountains,
we liave no less to go with it, tliaii
when, like a friend with loving face,
it offers to lead him along green pas-
tures, by the river-side.
November 25th.
It is a fine thing in friendship to
know when to be silent.
Novemher 26th.
Action is more powerful than
speech, in the inculcation of religion.
N'ovemher 27th.
Some spirit must move in that
wind that haunts us with a kind of
human sorrow.
144 BEAUTIFUL TIIOUGUTS
November 28th.
Thou, too, hast such a chamber,
quietest place,
Where God is waiting for thee.
What is it
That will not let thee enter?
November 29th.
In the cold desolate garret he knelt
and cried out unto that which lay
beyond the thought that cried, the
unknowable infinite, — after the God
who may be found, as surely as a
little child knows his mysterious
mother.
November 30th.
God cannot be more j^our Father
than He is. You may be more His
FROM GEORGE MAC DONALD. 145
child than you are, but not more
than lie meant you to be, nor more
than He made you for.
10
DECEMBER.
December 1st.
But He said that they Avho did His
work
The truth of it shouhl know:
I will try -to do it — if He be Lord,
Perhaps the old spring will flow.
Perhaps the old spirit wind will
blow,
That He promised to their prayer,
And doing Thy will, I yet shall know
Thee Father, everywhere !
December 2d.
The winter restrains that the sum-
mer may have the needful time to do
150 BEAUTIFUL THOUGHTS
its work Avell : for the winter is but
the sleep of summer.
December 3d.
Shall life itself be less beautiful
than one of its clays? Do not be-
lieve it. Men call the shadow
thrown upon the universe, Avhere
their own dusky souls come between
it and the eternal sun — life; and then
mourn that it should be less bright
than the hopes of their childhood.
December Iftli.
All good is of God. If a man love
his brother whom he hath seen, the
love of God, whom he hath not seen,
is not very far off.
December 5tli.
Unto everv one whom God hath
FROM GEORGE MA C BOX ALT). 151
sent into tlie world, He hath given a
work to do in that world.
December 0th.
Whatever may l^e meant by the
place of misery, depend upon it, it is
only another form of love : love
shining through the fogs of ill, and
so made to look something very dif-
ferent.
December 7tli.
The simplest woman who tries not
to judge her neighbor, Avill better
know what is best to know, than the
best-read bishop Avithout that one
simple outgoing of his highest nature,
in the effort to do the will of Him
who thus spoke.
152 BEAUTIFUL TUOUGUTS
December 8th.
The one grand thing in humanity
is faith in God; the highest in God,
His truth, His goodness, His right-
eousness.
December 9tli.
As far as my experience guides
me, I am bound to believe that there
is a spot of soil in every heart, suffi-
cient for the growth of a gospel
seed.
December 10th.
Aspiration and obedience are the
two mightiest forces for development.
December 11th.
Of nothing can my heart be sure
Except the highest, best :
When God I see Avitli vision pure,
That sight will be my rest.
FROM GEORGE MAC DONALD. 153
December 1.3th.
The true way is difficult enough,
because of our unchildlikeness, but
there is a fresh life with every sur-
mounted height, a purer air gained,
more life for more climbing.
December ISth,
A quiet heart, submissive, meek.
Father, do thou bestow.
Which more than granted will not seek
To have, or give, or know.
December llfth.
The winter is the childhood of the
year. Into this childhood of the year
came the .child Jesus ; and into this
childhood of the year must we all
descend.
154 BEAUTIFUL THOUGHTS
December loth.
When the human soul is not yet able
to receive the vision of the God-man,
God, sometimes, — might I not say
always ? — reveals Himself, or at least
gives Himself, in some human being,
whose face, whose hands are the minis-
tering angels of His unacknowledged
presence, to keep alive the fire of love
on the altar of the heart, until God
hath provided the sacrifice — that is,
until the soul is strong enough to draw
it from the concealinoj' thicket.
December IGtli.
It is not good that a man should
batter day and night at the gate of
lieaven. Sometimes he can do noth-
ing else, and then nothing else is worth
doing ; but the very noise of the siege
FROM GEORGE MAC DONALD. 155
will sometimes drown the still small
voice that calls from the open postern.
December 17th.
No human being has ever been
allowed to occupy the position of a
pure benefactor. The receiver has his
turn and becomes tlie giver.
December 18th.
Think not about thy sin, so as to make
it either less or greater in thine own
eyes. Bring it to Jesus, and leave it
to Him to judge thee.
December 19th.
Our Lord taught us to pray always
and not get tired of it. God, however
poor creatures we may be, would have
us talk to Him, for then He can speak
156 BEAUTIFUL THOUGHTS
to US better than when we turn no
face to Him.
December 20th.
God gives us every sort of opportu-
nity for trusting Him.
December 21st,
Come liome, hungry soul ! Tliy God
is not like the elder brother of the
parable, but a God high above all thy
lorjging, even as the heavens are above
the earth.
December 22d.
Who dwelleth in that secret place,
Wliere tumult enters not,
Is never cold with terror base,
Kever with anger IkjI,
F^o^[ GEoncF ^fAC doxald. iot
For if an evil host should dare
His very lioart invosr.
God is his deeper lioari. and ilioro
He entei-s into rest.
Dccrmhcr .^>:7.
Tlio Yorv niotlier of the Lord did
not, for a hvaL:^- time, niiderstauLl Him,
and only throtigh sorrow eanie to see
true odory.
De(*emher B^th,
A body eannot rise to the heiL^-ht of
graee all at onee, nor yet in ten en-
twenty years, ^laybe if 1 do ri^hi, I
may be able to eome to that eie all be
done.
Decmnher Both.
\n the name of tlie ludy eluld, Jestr^,
1 eall iiiH^n vou this Cdiristmas Oav to
158 BEAUTIFUL THOUGHTS
cast care to tlie winds, and trust in
God : to remember that the one gift
promised without reserve, to those that
ask it, is the gift of the Holy Spirit :
the spirit of the child Jesus, wlio will
take of the things of Jesus and make
you understand them.
December 26tli.
Tliere can be no true labor done,
save in as far as we are fellow-laborers
Avith God. We must work with Him,
not against Him.
Decemiher 27tli.
If we could thoroughly understand
anything, that would be enough to
prove it undivine, and that which is
but one step beyond our understanding
must be, in some of its relations, as
mysterious as if it were a hundred.
FROM GEORGE MAC DONALD. 159
December £8th.
"What is a man to do for the
poor? How is he to work with
God?" He must be a man amongst
them — a man breathing the air of a
higher life, and therefore, in all
natural waj-s, fulfilling his endless
human relations to them.
December 29th.
Of one thing I am pretty sure.
The same recipe Goethe gave for the
enjoyment of life applies equally to
all work. " Do the thing that lies
next you." That is all our business.
December 30th.
Whatever you do for the needy,
let your own being, — that is you, in
relation to them, — be the background,
that so you may be a link between
IGO BEAUTIFUL THOUGHTS.
them and God, or rather, I should
say, between them and a knowledge
of God.
December 31st.
Thou goest thine, and I go mine —
Many ways we wend ;
Many days and many ways,
Ending in one end.
Many a wrong, and its curing song;
Many a road, and many an inn ;
Room to roam, but only one home
For all the world to Avin.
INDEX
INDEX.
Action, 143.
Affliction, 19.
Against God, 103.
Aid, an. 111.
All at once, 157.
All his Works declare Him, 23.
All that can be done, 16.
An opportunity, 99.
Appearances, 141.
Argument, 13, 33, 88.
Battle-cause of life, 72.
Beautiful faces, 104.
Become thou pure, 11.
Begin to be strong, 71.
Being, 114.
Belief in beautj^ 128.
Be satisfied, 84.
Best, 135.
164 INDEX.
Best things, 48.
Best use of life, 113.
Be willing to be old, 121,
Burdens, 20, 140.
Business of life, 26.
Calm of the summer night, 96.
Care ye little, 9.
Character, 58.
Childhood, 153.
Christ alone, 76.
Christianity, 11, 46.
Christians in the world, 59.
Come to us, 19.
Come unto Me, 51, 82.
Conduct, 95.
Contempt, 142.
Contentment, 46, 89.
Cry of Humanity, 59.
Cup of cold water, 25.
Days of gladness, 115.
Death, 9, 10, 64, 135.
Defeat, 109.
Doing, not disputing, 19, 149.
Doors, 125.
INDEX. 165
Doubt, 24, 49, 62, 114, 144
Drudgery, 122.
Dullness, 48.
Duty, 58, 83, 136, 142, 159.
Earnest work, 14.
Enduring evil, 74.
Essence of Christianity, 101.
Eternal Sunlight, 98.
Evil, 55, 110.
Failures, 15.
Faith, 33, 38, 47, 73, 139, 140.
Faithfulness, 7.
Feeling, 39.
Forces and Facts, 122.
Forest of Humanity, 124.
Forgiveness, 43, 44, 45, 86.
Free-will, 123.
Friendship, 72, 143.
Gladness for weeping, 100.
God, only, creates, 8.
God sees thee, 20.
God's especial tenderness, 9, 63.
166 INDEX.
Grod's greatness, 113.
God's patience, 76.
God's school, 99, 115.
God's will, 89.
God with thee, 12, 35, 62.
Good to the poor, 59, 159.
Good women, 124.
Gospel, 75.
Growth, 47, 61.
Happiness, 71.
Hard-hearted, 32.
Here and there, 110.
Higher joy, 88.
Higher Life, 90.
His end in giving, 105.
His north winds, 113.
His Spirit, 47.
Hoping, 32.
Human, we love, 12.
Hurt of love, 16.
Husks, 102.
If Thou shine in me, 13.
If you would only ask, 12.
Individual soul, 124.
INDEX, 167
In God, 25.
Injustice, 36, 44.
Inward sense, 31.
Jesus, 31, 158.
Joy, 129.
Judge not, 46, 49, 151.
Justice of God, 103.
Kindness, 62.
Kingdom of Christ, 26 49, 69.
Knowledge, 16, 50, 85.
Labor, 63, 158.
Less ready, 109.
Life, 40, 74, 96, 126, 136.
Life and religion, 24.
Light out of darkness, 2, 14.
Little affairs, 98, 130.
Little child, 86, 136.
Longing, 51, 81, 84, 103, 128, 156.
Lost years, 26.
Love, faith, obedience, 70.
Lowest work, 98.
Man's labors, 21.
Mean thoughts, 114.
168 INDEX,
Mercy, 81.
Ministry of pain, 102.
Misery, 64, 65, 77, 82, 151.
Mist and clouds, 57.
More blessed, 74.
Murder, 62.
My ambition, 87.
None but God, 11.
Not able to receive, 154.
Not understanding, 138.
Not having enough, 91,
Nothing, 127.
Not love, 8.
Obedience, 32, 33, 75, 87, 104, 153.
One day, 95.
One providence, 32.
One of the lessons, 98.
One of your first duties, 116.
Only God, 10.
Only lovely thing, 82.
Only way, 3.
Opportunity, 11, 156.
Our fate, 60.
Our dependence, 104.
Our business. 111.
INDEX. 169
Our truer self, 112.
Outside the Kingdom, 26.
Parting, 160.
Peace, 20, 50, 76, 84.
Perfect, 25.
Philosopher, 111.
Playthings, 130.
Power of God, 60, 61, 70.
Praise enough, 39.
Prayer, 15, 137.
Preparation, 98, 122.
Pride, 39.
Providences, 87.
Punishments, 77, 88.
Purest love of a woman, 8.
Purity, 37, 118.
Quiet heart, 153.
Real Duty, 100.
Reality, 86, 122.
Receiver and Giver, 135.
Rejoicing, 31, 72.
Religion, 75, 83, 112.
Repentance, 57.
Repose, 22.
170 INDEX,
Rest, 140, 155, 152, 157.
Results, 56.
Resurrection, 43.
Revelation, 37, 77.
Riches, 71.
Sacrifice, 58, 113,
Salvation, 131.
Secret place, 21.
Service, 24, 34, 46, 124, 139.
Simple words, 37.
Smoking flax, 123.
Sorrow, 157.
Spirit of God, 131,
Still small voice, 154.
Stillness and Thunder, 21.
Strength of a woman, 13.
Strive to be, 12.
Success, 140.
Sunrise, 99.
Sunshine, 127.
Take thought, 14.
Temptation, 83.
That which we call evil, 11.
"The Thing," 122.
INDEX. 171
Thoughts, 73.
Thy Will, 27, 69.
To do what we ought, 96.
To enjoy alone, 101.
Tools, 56.
To trust God, 14, 15, 36, 116.
Trees of Life, 75.
Troubled Soul, 38.
True nobility, 114, 115.
True power, CI.
True self, 40.
True way, 153.
Trusted, 8.
Truth, 9, 34, 117, 89, 90.
Unbelief of the Poor, 56.
Uncover the light, 19.
Understanding, 116, 127, 158.
Victory, 117.
Voice, A, 24.
Waiting, 85.
Wait in quietness, 10.
What Thou Art, 21.
WTio is a Christian, 97.
172 INDEX,
Will of God, 52.
Winter and Summer, 125, 149.
Without taking trouble, 102.
Women's mistake, 59, 61.
Words, 38, 44.
Work and Faith, 7.
Work on, 23, 34, 55.
Young and Old, 97.
Your enemies, 50.
Your Father, 70.
Your neighbor, 48.
Your next duty, 22, 64.
Live Music Archive
Librivox Free Audio
Metropolitan Museum
Cleveland Museum of Art
Internet Arcade
Console Living Room
Open Library
American Libraries
TV News
Understanding 9/11